In search of better governanceThis is hilarious: The Sun Media editorialists decide to call up the toll-free number featured in the government’s much-reviled Economic Action Plan advertisements. Result? “A polite receptionist referred us to the ministry of finance website Budget.gc.ca, explaining she didn’t have a direct phone line for the EAP, nor was she aware of the Actionplan.gc.ca website, which we told her about.” This is hardly surprising, considering a government poll found that basically nobody is paying attention to the ads except to hate them. So enough already, they say. This is “essentially an example of the government using public money to boast about its economic initiatives. If the Conservatives want to do that, they should do it with their own money.” Amen.

Haroon Siddiqui, writing in the Toronto Star, politely explains to new Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander that his predecessor Jason Kenney turned Canada’s immigration system into a racist, sociopathic, neo-Conservative abomination, and suggests he reverse course on all fronts, beginning with “freez[ing] immigration until the job picture improves,” which is an OK thing to say as long as you’re not conservative. Siddiqui also says that Kenney “barr[ed] refugee claimants from ‘safe third countries,'” which is a massive factual error that you’d think an expert on this matter wouldn’t make.

Postmedia’s Andrew Coyne continues his quixotic campaign against what he sees as unjustified and unnecessary railway regulations in the aftermath of the tragedy in Lac-Mégantic, arguing that it was a “unique event” — “nothing like it has ever happened before,” and “nothing like it is ever likely to happen again.” Brave words.

In the Ottawa Citizen, meanwhile, Mark S. Winfieldargues that “some form of major rail accident in Canada [was] virtually inevitable” — apparently despite across-the-board improvement in safety statistics — thanks to the “enormous increase in the shipping of petroleum products on Canada’s railways ,” tanker cars that aren’t as strong as they could be, regulatory relaxation, government budget cuts, “cutthroat competition” between railways and other factors that “incubated” the disaster.

“There is clearly a big difference between seeking to block online access to illegal content, which is a worthy if largely futile goal, and erecting barriers to websites the government deems morally corrupting, which is a towering, slippery slope,” the Toronto Star‘s editorialists write in dismissing British Prime Minister David Cameron’s proposed nationwide porn filter, and Canadian Conservative backbencher Joy Smith’s enthusiasm for a Canadian equivalent. “We would think conservatives like Cameron and Smith would see the latter as unacceptable social engineering,” they add.

Having fun in MontrealFather Raymond J. de Souza, writing in the National Post, struggles to comprehend why Le Journal de Montréal would manufacture a “controversy” over an amusement park allowing Muslims and Jews to bring their own halal and kosher food, while all others must buy from concessions. “It can’t be that they simply enjoy ruining a day at the park for Jewish and Muslim kids,” he says. We’ll, uh, go ahead and let him keep thinking that. In any event, he links this “controversy” to a considerably more important one in Poland, where a ban on ritual slaughter has “had a devastating effect on the kosher butcher industry.” And he suggests governments and “even private actors” too often think supposed “neutrality” should “automatically trump legitimate and ancient religious liberties.”

You can finally drink while you gamble at the Casino de Montréal, and the Gazette‘s Henry Aubin is none too pleased about that, or about any of the other profit-boosting measures Loto-Québec is undertaking at the government’s behest. “Gambling is by nature a cruelly exploitative business,” he argues, “and the Marois government is making it all the more so.”

The Citizen‘s Kate Heartfield thinks a forthcoming pardon for Alan Turing (which we’ve argued against in the past) “makes moral sense as the thin edge of the wedge: an easy, sympathetic case that demonstrates how vicious laws ruin lives” — but not if, as seems to be the case with Stephen Harper’s apology for residential schools, it’s supposed to put a final period on past wrongs and close the book. We still think a pardon is self-evidently wrong, for the simple reason — which Heartfield understands — that he didn’t do anything wrong. There are many superior ways to start a discussion about vicious laws and ruined lives, in our view.

The Prairie Rose School Division near Medicine Hat, Alta., is testing a way to ease students’ long bus commutes: Wi-Fi. Many students face daily commutes of over three hours, and the division wants to make that time useful. The Post’s Kristopher Morrison spoke Tuesday to Lyle Roberts, the division’s technology director, about this project, which costs a maximum of $50 per bus for Internet hookup.

Q: What were you hoping to get out of this?

A: We wanted to improve the quality of the bus ride. We have students who have an hour and 40 minute bus ride to school. Three hours and 20 minutes on a bus, that’s a long time on a bus everyday. So, to improve that bus ride time, give them the option to go on the Internet to do homework, to do whatever they want to do. If it’s improving the quality of the bus ride, we’re for it. And if they’re learning something, all the better.

Q: Are you seeing improvements in the students?

A: What we have noticed is that there’s diminished behavioural issues for the bus drivers on those particular buses that have the Wi-Fi access.

Q: That doesn’t surprise me at all.

A: No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t surprise anyone.

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A: Most of them say, “Yeah, let’s make it better for the kids.” A lot of kids are connected from the time they get up in the morning until the time they go to bed. They use their devices for all sorts of purposes, even gaming on the buses. They’re gaming at home, so they can use it for that purpose and it’s not a problem. We do have content filters in place so they can’t get to bad sites, like pornographic sites. We don’t allow them to go to social media sites on the buses either.

Q: So, spending some time playing a game on the bus isn’t an issue?

A: Not for us, no. They also have access to classroom materials that are being developed as well by the teachers. The teachers post classroom materials so [students] can review them on the buses. So, they can do homework on the way home and not worry about it when they get home. Some of the students’ parents have said, especially about the younger ones, that when they get home they basically only have time to feed them, get them cleaned up and into bed. Then, they start the next day at 5 a.m. It’s a tough slog for some of those students, especially the young ones to go that long on the bus.

Q: Is this part of any greater program to expose them to technology?

A: Through this project we’ve actually found how we can have the students stay at home for maybe two or three days out of the week. It gives the flexibility that the parent can still send the student when they want for instruction but they can stay home for instruction as well.

Q: And that can be for weather or length of the commute?

A: Yes, exactly. They can actually video conference with the teacher in the classroom if they want to. They have a shared white board or a shared screen. If they have a laptop at home, they can actually share the screen with the teacher and share the notes with the teacher in the classroom.

Q: Have you been getting the attention of other school boards?

A: Yes. They’ve been asking how we’re doing things and how we’re able to do them. Like, the Wi-Fi on the buses, it’s almost a side project. The actual purpose behind it is, we’re trying to extend the education into the homes of the students. The Australians have the great Australian outback, we have the great Canadian outback. That area is a great geographic distance and the students are in a distant location. We have to rethink what’s happening. It’s a rethinking of how we’re providing education. We have to do it, that’s all there is to it.

Dr. Bray’s clinic may be the only mainstream medical facility in Canada that routinely treats patients for a condition known as electromagnetic hypersensitivity. She recently held a seminar to educate physicians about what she calls a major and fast-growing public-health menace, paralleling the explosion of wireless technology in Western society.

“Every year we are getting more and more people coming in,” said Dr. Bray. “I’m very concerned, because the stories are very, very compelling … These are not crazy people. There is a huge, huge problem.”

She advocates major changes to how telecommunications and computer technology are used, such as moving to more hard-wired communication devices.

Yet the idea that radio waves could cause health problems — especially conditions like those Dr. Bray’s patients describe — is a matter of heated debate among scientists. The symptoms her patients report are undoubtedly real, and sometimes debilitating, but a string of studies has found no real evidence that the trigger is exposure to wireless waves, says a top environmental-health doctor with the Ontario government.

Even as another branch of the government funds treatment of electromagnetic hypersensitivity at Women’s College, Dr. Ray Copes questions whether doctors should be promoting the diagnosis in the absence of proof.

“You have to be very careful as a scientific, medical authority figure that you don’t provide an outside reinforcement of beliefs that might be quite sincere, but lack scientific evidence,” said Dr. Copes, environmental health director with the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. “You don’t want to reinforce disability, and you don’t want people to put themselves in tighter and tighter boxes with regards to their daily activities.”

Spencer Platt/Getty Images“We’re going through a paradigm shift where we have so much of this radiation bombarding us in our homes, at work, at school.”

The World Health Organization stakes out a similar position. Its International Electromagnetic Field Project states that there is no empirical basis for linking the syndrome to electromagnetic fields, and urges doctors to focus on patients’ symptoms — not their “perceived need” to eliminate electromagnetic radiation at home or work.

Despite the medical world’s doubt, health-related concern about devices from cordless phones to baby monitors seems, if anything, to be on the rise, fuelled partly by conflicting research on the link between mobile telephones and brain cancer.

Such devices emit non-ionizing radiation and have historically been considered all but harmless, unlike X-rays, nuclear reactors and other machines that produce ionizing radiation.

However, last year the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer deemed cellphones to be possible carcinogens — in the same category as lead and coffee — with some large studies finding a possible link, and others suggesting there is none at all.

Dr. Bray’s practice is evidence that worry about the effect of such devices extends beyond slowly developing cancers.

I’m very concerned, because the stories are very, very compelling … These are not crazy people. There is a huge, huge problem

The Toronto doctor said she saw no hypersensitivity patients at her clinic five years ago, but now treats dozens a year, diagnosing patients after first taking an extensive history.

The symptoms include “lancinating” or stabbing headaches, nausea, heart palpitations, tinnitus, extreme fatigue and vertigo, she said. Typically, patients tell her the symptoms lessen or disappear when they move away from the source of the radio waves.

“Everybody in the person’s family thinks the person is going crazy,” said the physician. “Then they’ll start putting one and one together and they look around and [during an illness episode] somebody is doing this in close proximity; somebody is texting or talking on the cellphone.”

Patients often suffer from some other medical problem, too, such as heart disease, Lyme’s disease or an ear injury, which Dr. Bray believes may make them more susceptible to the hypersensitivity condition than most people.

She said the science is solid and well embodied by the Bio-initiative Report, produced by an independent group that includes professors from Columbia University and other prominent colleges.

The strongly worded report concludes that radio-frequency and other electromagnetic fields — including those around power lines — can spawn various cancers, alter brain function and trigger inflammation. It is less definitive on hypersensitivity, saying the phenomenon is backed up by anecdotal reports but that little hard research had been done.

Postmedia News filesAn electromagnetic hazard?

The report itself has been met with frank criticism from various governmental and science bodies, with the Netherlands Health Council, for instance, concluding that it is not a “balanced and objective reflection” of scientific evidence.

And, in fact, there has been extensive and rigorous research on whether hypersensitivity is caused by electromagnetic fields, said James Rubin, a psychology professor at King’s College London in the U.K.

Scientists have conducted more than 45 double-blind studies where both hypersensitivity patients and healthy controls were exposed to real and sham sources of cellphone and other radio-frequency radiation, not knowing which was which at the time. Though a few experiments indicated patients could correctly identify the real radio waves, the majority found no such ability, suggesting electromagnetic fields are unrelated to their symptoms, a 2009 review published by Dr. Rubin and colleagues concluded. His work is funded by a research institute that receives money from government and the mobile-phone industry, but is guided by an independent science board.

Dr. Rubin said in an interview that it is likely some of the patients are suffering from other, overlooked medical conditions or are among the significant chunk of patients for whom medicine is simply unable to find any specific diagnosis. Others are likely experiencing the “nocebo” effect — an entrenched, self-fulfilling conviction that a particular environmental source is hurting them, he said.

“If you expect something will make you feel ill … it will make you feel ill,” said Dr. Rubin. “That just creates a vicious circle.”

His analysis, however, is strenuously rejected by proponents of electromagnetic hypersensitivity, such as Magda Havas, an environmental-studies professor at Ontario’s Trent University.

She calls the studies that the British psychologist reviewed “deeply flawed” because they required subjects to almost immediately identify whether they were being exposed to electromagnetic fields, when many patients only experience symptoms after extended exposure, or have delayed symptoms. Dr. Rubin responded that some of the studies did involve prolonged exposure, while in others the hypersensitivity patients had indicated they normally detect electromagnetic fields rapidly.

Regardless, Prof. Havas pointed to studies she has conducted that concluded electromagnetic radiation can change heart rates, increase blood-sugar levels in diabetics and affect the wellbeing and performance of school students.

“We’re going through a paradigm shift where we have so much of this radiation bombarding us in our homes, at work, at school,” said Prof. Havas, a botanist by training. “What doctors are telling me is the normal way they treat patients isn’t working any more, and they’re trying to understand what this is.”

Opponents in the debate seem to agree on one point: As wireless gadgets enter virtually every facet of life — making it increasingly easy to stay in touch or get online — many people are, rightly or wrongly, growing deeply anxious about the invisible waves around them.

“It’s far more in people’s consciousness today than previously,” said Dr. Copes. “And, quite understandably, that raises fears and concerns on the part of some folks.”

As teachers’ unions across the country scrutinize the effects of Wi-Fi in the classroom, an Ontario Catholic teacher’s organization has definitively said schools should practice “prudent avoidance of exposure” despite the lack of conclusive scientific evidence proving its harm.

The Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association may well be the first to take a firm stance against it with their “better safe than sorry” approach, outlined in a position paper and quietly posted online last week.

The paper said the expanded use of wireless devices in Catholic schools and educational facilities across Ontario “may present a potential [h]ealth and [s]afety risk or hazard in the workplace.” Schools should be hardwired with and routers should be turned off when they’re not in use, the union’s Health and Safety Committee recommended. Schools also must acknowledge the three percent of the Canadian population affected by “environmental sensitivity,” which is considered a disability under the Canadian Human Rights Code, the report went on to say.

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“If this is a cause for concern and if the information is not crystal clear, all the more reason to step into that and take a more thoughtful look at it and make sure we have the best situation available both for our members, but more importantly for the elementary students,” said OECTA president Kevin O’Dwyer, whose union represents more than 45,000 teachers in 1,400 schools.

The assertive stance has once again shone a light on the divisive battle between parents who fear the effects of electromagnetic radiation on their children and observers who say their concerns are overblown.

Iain Martel, chair and spokesperson for the Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism, a body of the Centre for Inquiry Canada said the teachers’ association report amounts to “scare mongering.”

“We believe that the OECTA goes overboard in advocating an overly cautious approach to the use of Wi-Fi technology in schools,” he said in an email. “There is no plausible mechanism by which such technology could cause harm, and no good evidence of any harm.”

The fear of radiation might limit the use of innovative technology like iPads that have been increasingly used to enhance student learning, he added.

Last May, the World Health Organization put cellphones on the list of things that are possibly carcinogenic to humans. Also on that list are coffee, gasoline engine exhaust, night shift work and the pesticide DDT.

In October, Health Canada said children under 18 should try to limit their cellphone use since children are typically more sensitive to a variety of environmental agents.

“As well, there is currently a lack of scientific information regarding the potential health impacts of cell phones on children,” the advisory read.

Most schools abide by Health Canada’s position that low levels of micrwave radiation, emitted through cellphones and Wi-Fi are safe because they’re below the threshold limit values that have been set out in their standard called Safety Code 6 Guideline for microwave radiation.

That said, some schools, such as Wayside Academy in Peterborough, Ont. and Pretty River Academy in Collingwood, Ont. as well as North Cariboo Christian School, a private elementary about 10 kilometres south of Quesnel, B.C. have disconnected their Wi-Fi.

In response to these concerns, teachers’ unions have been actively investigating the research into the potential adverse effects of electromagnetic radiation and technology on children —and on the employees they represent.

At last year’s August annual meeting, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario voted to study the effects of Wi-Fi on students. The results of that study, which is consulting experts at Industry Canada, Health Canada, the University of Toronto and the existing research on Wi-Fi, are expected in August 2012.

The British Columbia Teachers Federation conducted a “detailed review” of available research and opinion last year and decided to remain neutral — despite lively debate in its news magazine.

“Based on the existing research, we cannot definitively state that Wi-Fi is harmful, nor can we say with assurance that it is entirely harmless,” the federation said in a statement.

In April, the Alberta Teachers’ Association is holding a colloquium, or informal discussion, about technology’s impact on children’s health. While most of the attention will focus on screen time, Philip McRae, an executive staff officer with the Alberta Teacher’s Association and adjunct professor of the University of Alberta, expects Wi-Fi to be discussed.

Mr. O’Dwyer said some members of the union expressed concern about the affects of Wi-Fi. He could not say whether those concerns would give teachers grounds to refuse work in a classroom with Wi-Fi if he or she deemed it to be unsafe.

Orillia, Ont. parent Colleen Genno was pleased to hear the Catholic Teachers speak out against Wi-Fi. She pulled her 5-year-old son out of junior kindergarten at a local Catholic school last year after her son suffered nosebleeds and night terrors. She blames Wi-Fi in the school for causing it.

“I think it’s wonderful,” she said, adding that a big organization lending its voice to the issue might buoy her effort to keep the school board from installing Wi-Fi in a new local school.

Until there is conclusive evidence, parents and educators will just have to decide whether benefits of the technology outweighs the unknown risks, said Jack Siemiatycki, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Montreal and investigator in the WHO’s study on mobile phones.

“It’s completely understandable [to react the way OECTA did] because there’s nothing much else to guide people,” he said. “So you grasp at straws even if they’re flimsy.”

TORONTO — Although wireless Internet can be found everywhere from your corner coffee shop to your local dog park, a growing group of concerned parents across the country are urging health officials to keep it out of one place: schools.

And if this year was any indication, the chorus of opposition to the popular technology and its potential health effects is gaining momentum.

In September, at least 12 elementary and middle schools in Ontario and B.C. imposed sweeping bans on wireless Internet by not installing it or removing it completely from their classrooms. In May, the World Health Organization reclassified the radio frequency (RF) energy emitted through wireless devices such as cellphones and WiFi connections as possibly carcinogenic.

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Health Canada maintains that strong scientific evidence shows current exposure rates to these low-level frequencies is “not dangerous” and that there is no need for the public to take any precautions.

Still, those opposed to the technology urge for a more cautious approach to be taken with WiFi, claiming the risks of long-term exposure in children are still unknown.

“This is not a question mark,” said Rodney Palmer with the Safe School Committee, a parents’ advocate group north of Toronto. “The idea is that we shouldn’t kill them to be online.”

Last year, Palmer’s two children aged six and 10, often came home from school feeling feverish. He says that the illnesses stopped when they were transferred this September to Pretty River Academy, a private school in Collingwood, Ont., which only uses wired Internet connections.

Palmer and other parents believe that WiFi exposure can lead to an array of health symptoms including headaches, nausea and heart conditions.

“It’s very difficult to avoid WiFi and it’s a huge problem in the classrooms, where the kids are for six hours a day,” said Magda Havas, a Trent University professor who has studied electronic-magnetic pollution since the mid 1990s.

“Then they go home and get exposed to another signal. It means their little bodies just can’t get rid of it basically.”

Havas cites past studies, which show that radio frequency exposure in rats led to an increase in tumours. A study she completed in 2010 also found a possible link between the frequencies and heart problems.

“I just can’t fathom how they can say that it’s safe,” she said.

But Dave Michelson, an associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of British Columbia disagrees.

Not only is wireless Internet safe; its opponents are doing the public more harm by spreading panic and misinformation, he says.

“This is the problem. These activists are good at intimidating,” said Michelson, who measures and researches radio-frequency energy.

“They have a deep-seated belief that it must be true. It becomes a matter of faith, not fact.”

Michelson called current levels emitted by wireless transmitters “weak” and “virtually undetectable.”

The symptoms that some may feel are more likely psychologically driven rather than physical, he explains.

“It’s a very cartoonish view of the world,” said Michelson. “They don’t let things like math, energy, time, place get in the way. But this is real life and an assumption (of symptoms) they have experienced shouldn’t be a basis for public policy.”

He likened the protest to other scientifically contested issues including the fluoridation of water.

A board-wide policy was put into place last spring to ban wireless Internet and only use wired connections in its eight schools. The move was based on a “genuine concern,” says board superintendent Keven Elder.

“The jury is well out on this issue. We examined the evidence and feel there is a legitimate case in terms of people’s concerns to this being a health issue,” he said. “It’s not entirely, in our view, dismissible.”

At Wayside Academy in Peterborough, Ont., the decision to shut off the school’s WiFi was an easy one.

“Whether it’s safe or not safe, there are people on both sides. We didn’t want to get in the middle of that argument,” said Adam Parker, the principal of the small Catholic middle school.

“What we do believe is that the social and psychological effects of using computers and video games are distracting students away from having a love of learning, a love of reading and distracting the educational process away from the school.”

Parker says it’s important to keep a “proper balance” of the real world and the virtual world and encourages parents to minimize computer use at home.

Stephen Harper went to China, and all I got was this lousy trade deal. The Prime Minister is reportedly off again soon for his second visit to Beijing, having taken so long to make his first one that the hosts complained. Anyone who thinks Harper is a rigid ideologue wedded to his ideals hasn’t been paying attention to the shifting positions in his China policy, which started off with human rights denunciations and allegations of corporate espionage, but lately have settled snugly back into Chretien-like happy tours in which everyone is friends and the contracts (hopefully) flow like drinks at a Chinese banquet. You could read this as a maturation process, or you could argue the PM is selling out his principles in hope of making a buck for the country. (Well, isn’t that what we pay him for?) Either way, it will be hard for the opposition to complain: former leader Michael Ignatieff regularly criticized Mr. Harper for failing to grasp the importance of China. So now he’s got the message, who’s going to complain?

Speaking of trade deals, Harper has been gallivanting around Latin America all week, being amicable with important people in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica (where apparently they have a hockey team) and Honduras. Don’t ask me what’s so important about Honduras, but there must be something. Today the PMO put out one of its breathless press releases, announcing Mr. Harper had unveiled “improvements to visa services and the opening of a Visa Application Centre in Costa Rica.” Well, phew, we’ve been waiting for that. (Travellers in Mexico, where Ottawa slapped on visa restrictions in an effort to slow illegal migration, must be less than happy that Costa Rica gets the Big Smile while they get the back of the hand). In any case, maybe it says something that while most western leaders are stuck at home trying to prevent their economies from melting down, or chasing looters from the streets, Harper is flying around drumming up more business.

This just seem pathetic. A Calgary do-gooder collects two truckloads of goods for Slave Lake fire victims. Townfolk say they don’t need any more help (which seems odd in itself — who can’t use more coats, blankets or toys for the kids?) so the goods end up in a dump. And when someone spots the mistake the dump says too bad, because a bylaw says once something’s in the dump it can’t be removed (that would be scavenging). And the city defends it because bylaws can never ever be contravened, no matter what the reason. A lesson for do-gooders. Check with the recipients first.

The biggest study on multiple sclerosis ever conducted finds “absolutely no support” for the Zamboni theory. Maybe this baby can now be put to bed. (Hah. Don’t bet on it)

Everyone is reporting excitedly on this big cancer breakthrough. Specially trained Ninja cells hunt down and kill cancer cells. One of the doctors involved says it’s still years from going anywhere, and only three patients have been treated so far. But so what. It beats more news on riots and stock crashes.

Philistine alert: The Toronto Transit Commission placed an ad for an art consultant to help pick art for the city’s new transit line. At $420,000. In an $8.2 billion project it’s a drop in the bucket, but really. Do riders care — isn’t a clean, functional, efficient station enough? The Ontario transportation minister thought so, and had the ad pulled, pronto. “We think it’s an unnecessary extravagance and the minister has since directed Metrolinx to take this posting down,” she said. Under her breath she added: “And there’s an election coming too you dolts. Does anybody here read the papers?” No, she didn’t really say that, but she thought it.

Apple has become the world’s most valuable company. (Even though the National Post Comment editor doesn’t quite own every product they make, yet). There must be some sort of major social or cultural significance to this. Technology displaces Big Oil as world’s reigning corporate behemoth. Steve Jobs walks in the footsteps of Rockefeller. There’s only so much oil, but you can always create a newer model iPad. Have we finally entered a new era, in which manufactured products surpass stuff we suck from the ground? The brain outmuscles the oil drill? No idea where I’m going with this, but seems like a theme.

A Vancouver Sun columnist pleads against putting wi-fi hotspots in provincial parks. If you can’t camp without tweeting you shouldn’t bother, for God’s sake. Nature wasn’t invented so you could receive emails or check Facebook in the woods. Good argument. (But again, fat chance)

Joshua Lott / Getty Images<img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-4648" title="Posted Podcast logo" src="http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/logo-npposted.gif&quot; alt="" width="104" height="104" />This week. Freedom in Egypt. After weeks of protests and decades of authoritarian rule, Egypt has a chance at democracy. I talk to World Editor Michael Higgins about what's next for the Middle Eastern country. Also, we join our colleagues at the Financial Post Big Picture podcast for a look at the merger between the TSX and the London Stock Exchange.
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<a href="http://www.nationalpost.com/podcasts/index.html&quot; target="_blank">Get more episodes of this and our other podcasts on our dedicated page</a>

The Tea Party has proven to be a formidable political force in the United States — but it also has vocal Canadian supporters. A dozen made their voices heard this week, after National Post columnist Kelly McParland criticized the right-wing movement in both the Post’s print edition and online at fullcomment.com, the blog of the Post’s comment pages.

On Wednesday, Mr. McParland dismissed Tea Partiers as “a rump of zealots so immune to reason they’re willing to gamble the economy to get their way.”

“I was shocked to read this offensive, puerile and vitriolic screed,” shot back Doug Kaye. “The author obviously doesn’t understand the term ‘rump.’ A rump party is what we have in the Liberal Party of Canada.”

“Kelly McParland’s column berating the intransigence of the Tea Party has revealed either willful ignorance or a lack of understanding of the issue of raising the debt ceiling,” stated Michael McCallion. “Why mock the political force that forced the ‘same old, same old’ practices of the Washington political class to be set aside? Without this pressure, the first step of bringing the United States back [from the brink of ruin] would not have been taken.”

“Kelly McParland uses broad generalizations and negative labels (‘zealots’ and ‘hobbitts’) to describe Tea Partiers,” added J. Josephson. “I would like to point out that Tea Partiers are regular Americans who just want to live within their means. They may not be sophisticated, liberal elites, but just average Americans who have resorted to the ballot box, not [extortion] (‘knees cut off,’ ‘hostage,’ ‘Russian roulette’) as Mr. McParland implies. I think he ought to tone done his angry rhetoric and accept that all Americans have the right to a voice.”
Mr. McParland defended his criticism of the Tea Party in Friday’s paper. That brought in this reaction.

“Kelly McParland’s column is a pretty good summary of why I read the National Post,” wrote Tim Weber. “Post columnists, with the exception of Terrence Corcoran, stake out positions across the political spectrum. They slavishly parrot no one political dogma and that’s how I like my morning paper — thoughtful, fair and true to the facts. I want to be informed, not led. Those who would prefer to read a ‘party organ’ loaded with predictable comment and reaction to the days news should look elsewhere. I read those papers, too (after all, I’m a liberal) but I’ve come to expect more from the National Post.”

— Conrad Black is both lauded and criticized by readers. Here are notes from both camps.
“I have enormous admiration for people like Conrad Black, who are able to use language in such a way that reading their work is like sitting down to a gourmet meal,” wrote Leone Wright. “The gastric juices start to flow as I anticipate what Mr. Black has to say. His repertoire of words makes reading truly worthwhile.”

“As a faithful reader of Conrad Black, Rex Murphy, Robert Fulford, George Jonas, et al., I would rank Mr. Fulford first for readability and Mr. Black last,” countered Leonard Lee. [Last] Saturday’s column could set a record for turgidity; the final sentence of his penultimate paragraph had 49 words, and even started with the word ‘and,’ as if he would have preferred to combine it with the previous 18 words, but could not find a suitable artifice … Some days, I think I would rather take a crack at the Rosetta Stone than decipher Mr. Black.”

— Liberals are a popular target of letter writers. Two weeks ago, the Post ran a story about how Bob Rae indirectly bumped another passenger from a plane flight, due to the Liberal MP’s Super-Elite status on the airline in question. In following days, we ran a letter from a reader titled: “Bob Rae ate my dinner.” It detailed how he was denied his first choice on the dinner menu when flying business class, as the Super-Elite passengers had claimed all the top-notch food. That letter brought in this satirical note.

“I suffer from a respiratory ailment that renders me short of breath,” wrote an anonymous reader. “One day, I was walking down the street and started to gasp for air. I had to rest. Just then, Bob Rae walked by. I could only breathe normally again once he walked further away. So it’s clear: Bob Rae breathed my air. Somebody has to stop him.”

— A debate about the safety of Wi-Fi computer networks erupted in the last few weeks, after Green party leader Elizabeth May made the scientifically dubious claim that they are endangering everything from the insect world to school children.

The Post had little time for such claims, refuting these allegations in editorials last Thursday (“Of all the new-age health-fad urban legends floating around the Internet, perhaps the silliest is the one that claims Wi-Fi computer-network signals to be a significant health hazard”) and Saturday (“Canadian politicians … should be doing what they can to tamp down this nonsense.”). But not all readers — including a university professor whose letter was printed on Wednesday‚ are convinced that Wi-Fi is safe. Here’s one more non-believer, who takes his argument to an extreme degree.

“I am one that is hypersensitive to radio frequency fields,” wrote Robert Riedlinger. “To those that are not and think this is a joke, I extend this advice: Keep your cellphone close to your brain, move close to a cellphone tower, sleep close to the new smart [energy] meters they are forcing on us, and if you don’t feel the effects within a certain period of time, stick your head in your microwave oven. Then you can talk with some authority on this subject. It takes time to cook a roast.”

Jonathan Ernst / reutersA Tea Party supporter dressed as Captain America at a Washington rally on July 27.

Re: A Country Held Hostage To Right-Wing Purists, John Moore, Aug. 3.
Writing from his “annual retreat in the United States,” John Moore says that “all the crazies seem to be in the Tea Party.” Instead of maligning a large segment of well-meaning citizens, Mr. Moore should ask himself what is it about President Barack Obama (and his policies) that spawned a whole new force in U.S. politics. Perhaps, Mr. Moore should spend some time during his U.S. retreat actually meeting with the people he so disdains and listen to what grieves them. He might learn that the Tea Party’s primary platform is that governments, like individuals, must live within their means. Moshe Faust, Toronto.

Ayn Rand, who comes under the withering fire of John Moore’s verbal machine gun, correctly foresaw the evolution of Barack Obama’s style of governance. She foresaw the stultifying effect to the vigour of a society, when its government feels bound to wring ever-rising tithes from the productive side of its economy so that it can administer the bounty — according to its vision of social justice. To Mr. Moore’s accordant rose-hued ideology, her predictions were a “screed,” to be lumped in with Ronald Reagan and all the other “crazies” of the right. She foresaw that too, along with the demagoguery of Mr. Obama, who must vilify the producers in order to generate the public will to take from them.
Mr. Moore lacks such foresight. And he refuses to acknowledge the epicentre of this ideological storm — the crushing global danger of a US$14-trillion debt. Rick Fuschi, Windsor, Ont.

Re: Russian Roulette And The U.S. Debt, Kelly McParland, Aug. 2.
Where columnist Kelly McParland sees political calamity in the weeks that led up to the debt deal and a President held hostage to Tea Party “zealots,” I see the worlds’ finest constitution at work.
The system of checks and balances in the U.S. Constitution worked to enable a strong conservative element of American society represented by the tea party and their recently elected representatives in the legislative branch, to restrain the free spending ways of a once-popular liberal President in the executive branch. Democracy can undoubtedly be a little messy at times, but once again a constitutional form of government has proven that it works and is preferable to the common alternative; violence, guns and often times, bloodshed. Dan Mailer, London, Ont.

It is clear Kelly McParland doesn’t like the result of the U.S. debt deal, which he lays at the feet of the Tea Party, specifically its distaste for tax increases. True, the Tea Party pushed hard against tax increases and for government spending cuts, both of which are sensible in a recession characterized by massive increases in public sector spending. Nevertheless, while Tea Party members in the House voted 23 to 17 in favor of the deal, 95 Democrats also bought in.
He also seems to believe that the U.S. President was the reasonable team player. Yet on any fair reading, Barack Obama spent the bulk of his time demagoging the issue. He stoked fears of social security cheques not being cut and soldiers not being paid when none of this was either inevitable or plausible.
Moreover, as was clear from the start of negotiations, the U.S. President was irrelevant. This was made clear when he was unceremoniously cut out of the negotiations by John Boehner, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi. Not that this seemed to matter to him as he relentlessly took to television apparently wishing to watch his poll numbers tumble more and more on each appearance. T.A. Heinrichs, associate professor, political science, Glendon College, York University, Toronto.

The National Post is quite correct to say: “Honour killings are a vestige of unassimilated immigrant cultures that treat a woman’s sexual virtue as a collective good.” The Post then goes on to argue, “Crown attorneys should not hesitate to lay applicable charges against knowing family and friends [who were aware of the plans to kill] the murder victim.”
We know, however, that the family, even the broader family, are not alone in the decision to kill for honour. The wider community of more distant relatives puts pressure on its members to ensure the honour of their community. This is one of the main findings of Ulli Wikan’s In Honour of Fadime: Murder and Shame, a study of honour murders in Scandinavia.
How many dozens, or hundreds, of people should be indicted for an honour murder, and what would they have had to say, do, or not do, in order to be convicted? Are we prepared to institute a concept of collective guilt? Perhaps the legal system is not the right one to address this issue.
If the problem is “unassimilated immigrant cultures,” then it should perhaps be addressed by our immigration system. If the “cultures” are “unassimilated,” then we should address ways in which we can advance assimilation.
One way is to set aside naive slogans about multiculturalism and recognize that we have work to do, if we are going to live together in Canada. Philip Carl Salzman, professor of anthropology, McGill University, Montreal.

Danger tourism

Re: That’s The Way The City Crum­bles, Graeme Hamilton, Aug. 2.
Montreal should capitalize on all the publicity it is receiving regarding its substandard infrastructure. It could bill itself as the world’s biggest amusement park. Some of the attractions could be the Ville Marie Tunnel of Trouble coupled with the Decarie Deathspressway. Steve Flanagan, Ottawa.

Insiders/outsiders

Re: A Caricature Of The Hum­an­ities, Masquerading As Their Saviour, Robert Fulford, July 30.
While most of our institutions have been investigated by professional associations, journalists and the police, universities for the most part remain immune to the judgment of, as scholars quoted by Robert Fulford put it, “outsiders.” What kind of a culture would seriously think of itself in such terms as “insider” and “outsider”? Mr. Fulford indicates that some of the “insiders” might lack the capacity for independent thought, i.e., are prone to group-think, and do not take an interest in the education of students.
Fortunately, a culture known, as he puts it, for “chronic sleepiness” is a breeding ground for discontent, and hence a sharpening of what it means to teach the humanities. There are promising people that study the humanities, but they are not popular with the “insiders” and are often on the margins. When organizations insist upon self-regulation in order to exist, people start to innovate. Being judged by “outsiders” can hasten the change. Andrew Fuyarchuk, Markham, Ont.

Faulty Wi-fi math

Re: The Wi-Fi Divide, letter to the editor, Aug. 3; Spreading Wireless Panic, editorial, July 30.
In his challenge to the National Post editorial, Professor Michael A. Persinger may wish to refresh his basic arithmetic skills. After suggesting that if 1% of the population “showed Electromagnetic Sensitivity (EMS) … 1% of the Canadian population would be approaching one-half million people and at a global level almost a billion.”
Wrong. One percent of Canada’s population is less than 350,000, and will not reach his stated half-million for close to 30 years at current growth rates. Furthermore, 1% of the world population is not one billion but rather, approximately 70 million. Alar Prost, Gloucester, Ont.

The right way to stop gun violence

Re: Fondness For Guns His Downfall, Christie Blatchford, Aug. 3.
At great expense, the Canadian government has compiled a list of people that it deems safe to possess firearms. This is a very long list of people who, if the government’s system has any merit, are not a problem.
Occasionally, Canadian courts actually prohibit people from possessing any firearms. Their names go on another list, acknowledging that they are a danger to others.
Notwithstanding that the this second list is very short and relatively inexpensive list to compile, Kevin Murphy’s Caribbean Carnival case (“a veritable poster boy for the gun violence that has periodically wracked Toronto”) illustrates that the police should shift their energy from non-offending Canadians on the first list to the thugs on the second. They are prohibited from possessing firearms but apparently have no fear of being caught doing so. Brent Mainwood, Calgary.

The myth of Grit cost cutting

Re: Liberal Cost Cutting Led To Today’s Stability, letter to the editor, Aug. 2.
I disagree with letter-writer John Edmond when he states the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is “revenue neutral in that it replaced the hidden manufacturers sales tax.” The GST is applicable to all manner of services and products that were not previously applied. These new sources would include tax on all professional and trade services, travel/accommodation charges, restaurant meals, etc. — the list is practically endless. Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin soon appreciated the importance of this GST bounty and quickly and quietly laid their much-touted pre-election cancellation promise to rest. Bill Phillips, Halifax.

John Edmond’s admiration for Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin blinds him to a lot of the political history of that time. The Liberals cut spending, true, but Liberal mythology never mentions the fact that most of those cuts were in the form of “downloading” onto the provinces.
While the Liberals basked in the glory heaped upon them by sycophants, it was up to provincial premiers who had to deal with an increase in budgetary responsibilities and a sharp cut in transfer payments. It is interesting to note that many of the same Liberals that cheer the memory of these cuts now warn Prime Minister Harper against doing the same thing. Because, well, that would be wrong. Michael Suba, Toronto.

Deadly meaning of ‘long term’

Re: HIV Killer Labelled Dangerous Offender, Aug. 3.
During the period of 2000-2003, Johnson Aziga Aziga exposed 11 women to the HIV virus. The most astounding part of this article is the statement, “The majority of the victims were Aziga’s long-term girlfriends.” Sandra Lindahl, Richmond, B.C.

Crack pipes — a pathway to misery

Re: Vancouver Is Now Pushing Free Crack Pipes, Aug. 2.
Instead of providing drug addicts with crack pipes, how about some jobs? As the head of an organization working alongside those who will benefit from clean, unused crack pipes, I’m sensitive to the concerns cited by those supporting this recent harm-reduction strategy. But I’m also scandalized by it.
Like so many other strategies funded by government, this one is devoid of hope and opportunity, and doesn’t allow for the possibility of change. Contrary to popular belief, many of our friends in the Downtown Eastside want to work. Everyone needs something that gets them out of bed in the morning — a sense of purpose for their day. When work is meaningful, dignity and pride is the best payment for our efforts. Crack pipes will always remain a pathway to misery. Brian Postlewait, executive director, Mission Possible, Vancouver.

Privacy: It’s all about control

Re: Our Vestigial Right To Privacy, L. Gordon Crovitz, Aug. 2.
L. Gordon Crovitz has identified a pivotal issue in privacy. He states that privacy is about personal control — I couldn’t agree more. Privacy is not about secrecy, it’s about control. The term “informational self-determination” reflects this very well, and was first coined by the Germans who enshrined it as a right in their constitution. It captures the true essence of privacy — even in this time of rampant social networking and e-commerce.
If you take it one step further, you have privacy by design — proactively embedding privacy into information technology and business practices, with individuals being in control of their own data. Privacy breaches have a much greater chance of being prevented when the interests of the user are made a priority. How do you achieve privacy by design? You start with clear notice and control mechanisms, then add empowering user-friendly options and strive to make privacy the default. Keep it user-centric — focus on control. Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, Toronto.

Darn that Netanyahu

Re: Palestinians Reject Israel’s ‘1967 Lines’ Proposal, Aug.3.
Darn that Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli Prime Minister keeps giving the Palestinians everything they claim to want. Fortunately, the Palestinians have two things going for them. They can read Mr. Netanyahu’s mind — “Palestinian officials suggested he was engaged in a ruse and would never live up to his word” — and they know with absolutely certainty that no matter how much Israel concedes and no matter how often Israel stresses that it is ready for peace talks, the world will keep blaming Israel for, well, everything. Stephen Tannenbaum, Thornhill, Ont.

A hilly, aqueous and sparsely populated corner of Ontario cottage country, Armour Township boasts rural charm and an abundance of natural beauty. Each summer, holidaying city folk descend in the hundreds on Big Doe Lake, Middle Doe Lake and Little Doe Lake — a string of waterways known collectively as Doe Lake. They are dotted not by the million-dollar cottages of the adjacent Muskoka region, but by a less densely populated, more middle class kind of shoreline.

Today, the view from a dock on the lake 2-1/2 hours north of Toronto is one of happy, relaxed vacationers against a backdrop of green rolling hills and blue sky. If residents are to also enjoy high-speed Internet, a 300-foot tower, likely complete with blinking lights, will soon intrude on that view, perched at the peak of one of the tallest hills overlooking the lake.

Many of the residents — roughly half are cottagers, half are full-timers — badly want wireless Internet. But many want exactly what they’ve got now: a relatively pristine oasis.

A battle has erupted, between the right to the Aurora Borealis and the right to Google.

“The view from my dock is very picturesque, very rolling with different shades of green, different varieties of green, it’s a very peaceful and serene place to live,” said Debbie Plumstead, who has lived on Doe Lake for five years. “If that tower could go somewhere else, I just think it would be better for everyone.”

The proposed tower is part of the federal government’s initiative to boost rural Canada by establishing access to high-speed Internet through its Broadband Canada program. But every site selected as a possible one for the 300-foot tower has elicited horrified cries from both full- and part-time landowners, concerned the tower will diminish their enjoyment of their property, detract from the pristine environment and, with the possibility of some lights being set atop the tower, brighten an otherwise dark night sky.

“Where we live is one of the more impoverished parts of Ontario, so we’re always trying to attract tourists,” said town reeve Bob MacPhail. “We’ve tried to keep too much economic development away from the lakes, because that’s where the tourists go. But high-speed Internet is critical to our economic development; it’s the last missing piece. The location that’s been chosen for the tower was chosen because it hits all the criteria. Unfortunately, the people who live there want it somewhere else.”

Anne Moore, who has been coming to the Little Doe Lake cottage her grandfather built for 76 years, said family members have been building permanent residences on the lake in the hopes of retiring there. She sees the value and necessity of having high-speed Internet, but the idea of erecting a tower across the water from her home saddens her.

“I’m not against the high speed; it’s just the location of the tower,” she said. “My sons and daughters are crying for the Internet – my daughter-in-law says she can’t come up if we don’t have it, but is there no other location for the tower?”

Spectrum Telecom Group, which has been contracted to bring high-speed to areas of Northern Ontario, has considered more than six sites, said Spectrum president Eric Kannen. The Little Doe Lake site would service the highest number of people at the cheapest cost.

“The only economic way to provide high-speed over this area is by tower, and it needs to be in the centre of the proposed area. The tower needs to transmit 360 degrees, so we need to the highest hilltop; the higher it is, the larger the cast area,” Mr. Kannen said. “We also need roads; if the roads don’t exist and we have to build more than 100 metres of road, that requires a different environmental assessment.”

In the past five years, Mr. Kannen said Spectrum has helped build 60 to 70 high-speed towers in Northern Ontario, and he has never seen this kind of resistance. He has received 12 serious letters of objection from residents, two of which came from year-rounders. Residents have also sent letters of objection to Industry Canada, which governs the Broadband Canada program, and expressed their disapproval directly to town council, which will ultimately have the final say.

“This is the most opposition we’ve ever had to any project,” he said. “Look, the site of a tower is not chosen lightly. To move forward, we need to put these towers up. This tower would be a hub site, critical for the other local towers. Hundreds of local people are dying for this service.”

Among their issues is the fact Armour Township’s own land-use plan contains a dark-sky policy, one residents worry the tower will violate. According to Spectrum, standard rules for a 300-foot tower include an oscillating red beacon atop the tower and steady burning red lights at the halfway level.

A town implementing high-speed under Broadband Canada can follow either the town’s guidelines or Industry Canada’s, whichever are more expedient. Armour Township began by following its own, and switched in June to Industry Canada’s — which do not include specifications on a dark night sky.

“I hate to see this pristine lake spoiled with a tower that has lights on it,” Ms. Moore said. “High-speed Internet would be a blessing, but if we could just get it in another location, that would be great.”

It’s been a long time since Mount Everest held any of the sense of awe it once inspired. It’s hard to get excited about climbing a mountain when your eight-year-old’s grade three teacher crested the summit on her last PD day. Now it’s going to get even more diminished:

KATHMANDU — Climbers at the top of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, will now be able to make video calls and surf the Internet on their mobile phones, a Nepalese telecom group claims. Ncell, a subsidiary of Swedish phone giant TeliaSonera, says it has set up a high-speed third-generation (3G) phone base station at an altitude of 5,200 metres (17,000 feet) near Gorakshep village in the Everest region.

Climbers who reached Everest’s 8,848-metre peak previously depended on expensive and erratic satellite phone coverage and a voice-only network set up by China Mobile in 2007 on the Chinese side of the mountain. The installation will also help tens of thousands of tourists and trekkers who visit the Everest region every year.

Great, people yakking on their cellphone on the roof of the world. That’s one giant leap for the communications industry, one huge disaster for any sense of adventure. You think it’s annoying listening to some Bozo yammer on his cellphone (or, worse, bluetooth) in the coffee line-up, how about when you’re waiting your turn at the highest spot in the world?

“Hi Mom, I’m at Mount Everest. Yeah. The peak. Yeah. Did you remember to tape Glee for me?”